One relatively familiar problem associated with photographs and other types of images is the phenomenon referred to as “red-eye.” Flash photography is used to overcome under-exposure in relatively dark environments. Red-eye generally results from a person's pupils not being able to quickly adjust to the flash in the dark environment, thereby resulting in the light of the flash reflecting off the retina in the back of the eyes. Various systems and methods have been proposed to reduce or practically eliminate red-eye. These systems and methods may be used either during image collection, in conjunction with image processing, or both.
However, other problems associated with the eyes of a subject within an image may also be present. For example, the subject may blink during image collection, thereby resulting in the subject having closed eyes in the image. The subject may also glance away from a camera or other image collection device during image collection, thereby resulting in the subject's eyes being shifted away from looking directly at the image collection device. If a problem is detected during image collection, another image or photograph may be taken to obtain an image without the defect. However, additional images to correct the problems generally result in additional processing costs and material waste. Additionally, if the problem is not discovered until image processing, duplicate images may no longer be an option, thereby resulting in loss of the image.